


Crazy is as Crazy Does

by decaffienateddefendorduck



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Toby's Mother comes to town
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 16:49:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10391385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decaffienateddefendorduck/pseuds/decaffienateddefendorduck
Summary: Toby's mother comes to town after seeing his wedding invitation





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just editing my work, cause that's what I do for fun.

A wedding announcement is brought in with the mail. It is placed in a pile of week’s old mail in the kitchen, none of which has been opened. This envelope falls out of the pile and onto the floor. The man who brought in the mail doesn’t notice, he just goes to the fridge, pulls out a beer, and goes into the living room. He turns on the TV and resigns himself to another evening of televised sports and the slow withdrawal into an alcohol induced haze, his only respite from the rest of his life.

A woman dazedly glides into the kitchen once the man has gone out, obviously trying to avoid him. On her way to the cupboard she kicks the wedding announcement so she notices the glossy, shiny paper. On seeing her own name in elegant script on the front, she picks up the envelope and breathes it in. Looking at the back she sees an address in Los Angeles, but doesn’t quite know if she knows anyone there. A hint of memory is playing at the back of her mind. There was a child.

She opens the envelope and on seeing the picture of Toby and Happy she immediately reverses out of the kitchen and back into a room full of girly, fanciful tulle and ribbons, scarves and chiffon, the like of which a much younger girl would have in her room, or vastly desire. There are tiaras and wands bedecked with ribbons and flowers, trailing from every surface there are ribbons and scarves. The woman sits on a bed under a canopy in a soft pink light. She goes over and over the details of the envelope and the invitation, constantly returning to stare at the picture.  
The TV can still be heard from the next room, shouts from both the TV and the man about the sporting contest, but none of it affects the woman who stares and stares at the picture. An idea suddenly lights up her face and as a manic episode starts, she starts throwing things around the room, searching for something it seems. This is actually the beginning of packing.  
___________  
In the garage, 36 boxes are being delivered. Paige is overwhelmed because they don’t say who they are from or who they are for; they just clearly state that they are to be stored in Scorpion’s premises. Toby and Happy enter and see the stacks of boxes. They ask Paige what is happening. She doesn’t know how to explain, she only states that there are 36. Toby looks at the handwriting and freezes. No one notices for a minute as they look around at the amount of stuff and Sylvester is commenting on the perfectness of the fact that there are 36, which is a perfect square. Happy looks back at the for-once-silent Toby and finally sees that he is frozen with a look of shock on his face, still staring at the handwriting.

“What’s up with you?” Happy inquires of Toby.

“That’s … my … mom’s … hand … writing. I think this delivery might be for me? I can’t fathom why she would be sending me 36 boxes of anything.”  
Happy cringes a little before saying, “I might have sent your parents a wedding invitation.” She continues to look at him hesitantly.  
Toby looks at her, trying to read her intentions. He then looks at the boxes again and turns to leave without a word. Happy isn’t used to being the one in their relationship who has done something that bothers the other partner, so she is shocked that he just walked out. She looks questioningly at Paige who gives her an encouraging look to suggest that Happy should go after him. Sylvester walks back into the entryway, so Paige asks for his help in getting the boxes out of the way. He and Ralph start making math puzzles out of the boxes, having an enjoyable time with the work. They start to discuss the various ways it can be done (“let’s stack them in order into a rhomboid”) as Happy turns to follow Toby. 

Outside Toby is attempting to break into Happy’s truck. She sees this and hits the button on the key fob to unlock it. This takes Toby by surprise, so he looks around and sees Happy approaching. Not really wanting to talk to her, he just stands up, then bends over and puts his head on the cab. Happy is unsure what has gone wrong, or why sending his parents a wedding invitation has caused Toby’s mother to mail 36 boxes to him and then for him to become silent for the first time in the 6 years that she has known him, since his initial shock at her false pregnancy news. Instead of talking, Happy goes up and puts a hand on Toby’s back. She hopes that just being close will be enough. When he doesn’t move away, but also doesn’t start talking, she fumbles for some words.

“Did I do something wrong? I thought you wanted to show me off to the people you knew in Brooklyn. I’m not the shrink, I don’t know what you need right now. Toby?”

“Away from here.”

“Can I come? Can I drive?”

Toby makes an affirmative gesture and sound while going over to the passenger side of the truck. Happy gets in, still looking worried, but just starts driving. Toby is looking out his window, but lets Happy take his hand. They are near the Venice boardwalk when Toby's eyes follow something he has seen out his window. He gestures for Happy to park and as soon as the truck stops, Toby is out of the car and walking away, back toward what he saw from the window. Happy catches up to him, barely. A few minutes into the walk on the boardwalk, with Happy close but still trailing behind, Toby looks up and once again he freezes. Happy walks into him, but he doesn’t move. Happy follows Toby’s gaze and sees a woman she has never seen before dancing down the boardwalk. The woman is wearing a long flowing dress with scarves and ribbons trailing out behind her as she dances. She wears ballet shoes and is talking and singing to herself. Her multitudinous hair looks tangled, but is also flowing out behind her. Toby takes a deep breath, steeling his nerves, and starts out after her. She isn’t walking in a straight line, she is weaving in and out of the passersby, so she eludes him for a time. Happy, still unaware of what is going on is getting farther and farther behind, but she is still attempting to keep up.

“Mom. Mother.” Toby receives no acknowledgement at all from the woman. “Jane. Victoria. Clarissa. Katherine. Uh, Diana. Cordelia.” At this last name the woman stops, as if transfixed by the name. She starts to look around for the person who said it and breaks into a huge smile at the sight of Toby.

“My sonny boy!” She stretches her arms out toward Toby, but waits for him to come to her. When he is within her arm’s reach, she grabs is face and pulls it to her chest, hugging him tighter than he is comfortable with. Toby’s arms flail due to his embarrassment until he regains a little composure and can try to get out of her embrace, but he is unsuccessful. The entire time Toby is in his mother’s arms she is calling him a number of terms of endearment, most of which would be aimed at a much younger child or a lover. All of them are inappropriate for a grown son. Some are in English (“oh my little, poopsie, my little cumquat”) and some are in French (“Ma petit Chou”).

Happy catches up to them and just stares, horrified by the public display of affection (still not knowing who the woman is or what is going on here). She tries to get Toby’s attention (“Doc?”) but he can’t hear her over the sheer amount of love coming at him from his mother and the growing crowd that is starting to form around them. Happy is afraid that if she gets any closer she might get swept into this embarrassing display also, so she takes a step away from them.

Toby finally gets out of his mother’s hold and puts his arm around her, while holding her other arm in what looks like a practiced hold. He turns back toward the direction of the truck and sees that Happy has seen the whole episode. Toby motions for Happy to start back to the truck, making it clear that he wants to be out of the public’s eye as badly as she does. The woman continues to try to dance along but often stumbles since she is now being forced to go at Toby’s much quicker pace; he has a tight enough hold on her that she never falls, but it is a very awkward trip. The entire way to the truck Toby has finally started talking again, trying to reassure the woman as they go (“It’s okay now, let’s get you someplace safe, etc.”).

Once back at the truck Toby hauls his mother into the back seat and gets in beside her, still holding onto her. Happy has been quiet all the way back and continues her silence the entire way to the garage. She is tight lipped, due this time to her complete confusion. The woman is also a little confused but starts up her previous name calling, adding piece of lullabies to the collection of childish names that she is calling Toby, which only confuses Happy more. Toby won’t meet her gaze in the rear view mirror, so she is also starting to get angry. Toby stops his reassurances once they are all back in the truck, gazing forcefully straight ahead through the windshield.

\---------  
The entry of the garage is a maze made up of all the boxes, and Happy just follows Toby as he leads the woman into the garage. On seeing her boxes, the woman slides out of Toby’s hold (letting us know she could have gotten out all along) and starts hugging them and greeting the boxes as though they are friends she has not seen for a long time. Her breaking free causes Toby to stop and Happy can finally draw even with him. 

“So this is your, mother?”

Toby can only look down at Happy, then he goes into the main area of the garage and calls for everyone to assemble. His mother stays in the entryway with her boxes, still greeting and hugging each one.

“Um, guys? Apparently my mother is here and has brought all of her belongings. Walter, if you want I can take these boxes to my place, eventually, but I would rather let her set up somewhere here. Tim’s old office, maybe? I won’t leave her here without me. I think she’s in the middle of a manic episode and the reverse of her bipolar disorder could come in at any moment. I don’t know how long she’s been like this and it won’t be any use to try to get straight answers from her until the depression is on its way in. I’ll stay close to her until I can get some explanation about why she is here like this all of a sudden.”

After this, with the team looking on in concern, his Mother, having finished greeting her boxes, sweeps into the room dancing as she goes to each person, starting with Toby and greeting them individually as a different person each time. As she goes to each one in turn, Toby grows more and more uncomfortable and immobile.

She goes first to Toby, hugging his head to her chest again: “My sonny boy, are these your friends?” she asks hopefully.

Next she goes to Walter, hugging his head to her chest: “Science? You may call me Marie, as in Curie.”

To Sylvester also hugging his head to her chest: “Math? You may call me Katherine, as in the mathematician Johnson.”

To Paige, twirling her around while holding both of her hands: “You are so pretty, you may call me Isabella Rossellini.”

To Cabe, in a deep curtsy: “Sir.”

To Happy, staring at her from a distance, not touching her or going toward her at all but standing up to her full height: “You are the adjective girl who is taking my son.”

The group all looks at the new woman and Happy completely dumbfounded, but grateful to have been let go, as she now holds Happy with her gaze, staring into her eyes. Toby finally finds his voice and the movement in his body. He crosses to his mother to get Happy out of her death stare, and puts his arm around her and says, “Mother, I would like to introduce you to my fiance, Happy Quinn. Happy, this is my mother, Jane Curtis.” Toby’s mother shivers when she hears her name spoken.

Toby managed to get Happy out of his mother’s line of sight, but Jane turns her head to continue staring as he leads her away. Her stare has turned from a death stare to a stare that goes right through Happy, who is starting to shrink a little. Happy is unable to move, and the entire team is also frozen by this odd display, that kind of explains a little of Toby’s psyche to them. As usual, Paige unfreezes first and moves across to greet Mrs. Curtis properly.

“It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Curtis.” Again, Jane shivers when she hears this name. Jane moves her head slowly to glare at Paige.

“I thought I told you to call me Isabella.” Jane’s cold stare lets Paige know how Happy was just feeling, because she is now the center of it.

“Oh, of course, Isabella. That’s a beautiful name. I’m Paige.”

“A noun girl and an adjective girl? Are you unable to find girls with actual names, Sonny?” Jane has now turned to Toby, but she looks at him lovingly, just as she has every time she has looked at him since they found her on the boardwalk. 

Sylvester is slinking back toward his desk; Cabe goes to the kitchen to get some coffee. Walter and Paige stay in the room with Toby, Happy and Jane.

Jane looks around at the awkwardness and goes over to Paige. “You look like a girly girl, you might be just the thing.” With that she grabs Paige’s hand and leads her off to toward the boxes.

Walter looks at Toby in a pitying way. “We’ve met Sly’s dictator father, my distant parents, Paige’s crooked mother, and Happy’s surprisingly wonderful, though imprisoned father. You win for the worst parents.”

Toby looks like Walter has just slapped him, so Walter retreats up the stairs leaving Toby and Happy alone. Toby collapses into a chair and Happy moves closer to him, hovering a little. Still not sure what to say to him, she moves one of his arms and sits on his lap, so he can’t avoid her. She wraps her arms around his weary form saying “I’m not sure she likes me. Do you think this is typical Mother-in-law animosity?” Toby tries to start to explain and realizes he can’t, that he’s never been able to fully explain his mother. So he just looks at Happy, appreciating that she is trying to take care of him.

Jane keeps leading Paige though the room, both of them carrying boxes one way and Jane leading Paige by the hand, dancing on the way back. Most of the boxes have been opened and are trailing ribbons and tulle, the things that were in the room in the opening scene.

Happy eventually asks, “So, you’re taking her home with you?”

“I have to, I guess I should call my dad to see what happened, but he should still be at work. I’ll try him in a little while.”

“Do you trust her with Paige?”

“As long as she has a project and she’s in her manic state, she’ll be fine. She’s ‘beautifying her space,’ that’s what she calls it. She won’t like leaving until it’s done.”

Happy puts her head on Toby’s shoulder and they sit that way as the unpacking continues in the background.

\------------  
Later that evening:

Toby is getting off the phone, frustrated.

“Was your dad any help?” Happy asks gently as the unpacking can still be heard in the background. Every once in a while Paige and Jane walk through the scene carrying boxes or leading a trail of gossamer materials.

“He said when he got home one night a week ago; she was gone with all of her things. She had cleaned the house and put everything away. All except for divorce papers, which she left on the kitchen table signed and with directions for how to file them. He’s done that and says now he’s done. He didn’t see the wedding announcement so she must have found it and that was the catalyst for her to start making plans to leave. He doesn’t know how long or when she got the divorce papers drawn up, but they looked pretty old. Oh, and she didn’t bring any of her medication, which he’s sending here as a divorce gift. No wonder this mania has been going on so long if she isn’t medicated.”

Happy is visibly shaken by this latest news and the reminder that her future mother-in-law should be heavily medicated due to her mental instability. She only asks, “Would you like to order dinner in? They’ve barely gotten through a third of the boxes.”

Toby goes over to the elevator to check on his mother’s progress. Paige is trying to explain to Jane that she needs to leave, which Jane is ignoring. Paige sees Toby and relief spreads over her face. He catches his mother’s attention, at which she grabs him in her mother’s embrace again spouting her mothering names to him, like the previous two times today, as though she is seeing him for the first time.

“Paige needs to go home now Mom, I’m sure she can help you again tomorrow.” Toby tries to explain gently.

“Who is this ‘mom’ of whom you speak?”

“You didn’t tell me what to call you. Oh, right, Cordelia worked before, didn’t it. Cordelia? Paige needs to leave. She has a son of her own to take care of.”

“Noun-girl, leave me if you must. I shall tarry on without you.” Jane places a hand at her breast as she curtsies and dismisses Paige. Paige sees an opening and gratefully leaves. Jane continues beautifying the space while Toby glances around. He then retreats a little to talk with Happy.

“I’m not sure the rest of those boxes are even full. It’s been some time since she went to get one and this looks like the room she took over when I left for Harvard. Maybe she’ll let me take her home without a big scene. God, I’m exhausted. I haven’t tried to deal with her in, what’s it been, seventeen years? And then I was not very successful.”

Happy just smiled what she hoped was a helpful smile at him as he got ready to approach the idea of leaving with his mother. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

“Thanks for being here for me today. I know it’s not easy for you. It wouldn’t be easy for anyone.”

Toby squeezes her arm and goes in to his mother heaving a sigh and glancing toward heaven.

\----------------  
THE NEXT DAY

Happy enters the garage to find Deputy Director Cooper already there with a mission for Scorpion.

“Finally! Happy, we’re going on a mission for Homeland, Toby is staying here to keep an eye on his Mother, but we’ll need you in the field. Ready?” asked Walter.

The team filed out, leaving Toby sitting at his desk staring over at the elevator section of the garage, where his mother emerges with a pair of scissors. 

“And what are you doing with those?” he asked her.

“Obviously opening a vein,” she says sarcastically. Seeing his terrified look makes her explain. “I’m breaking down the boxes, they aren’t very pretty. I’m sure you would rather I not use a box cutter, hence the scissors. I should probably save them for the next move, where would you like them?” Jane turned an innocent smile up at him waiting for his reply.

“You’re right, no box cutters. I’ll help you put them in storage. So you’re almost done? Less than twenty-four hours, that’s pretty amazing.”  
Jane approaches Toby and puts a hand on his face. “Where did all of your friends go, Sonny? Don’t they want to play with you today? Am I hindering your...” she hunts for a hip sounding word “mojo? Do the kids still say mojo? It’s been awhile since I’ve been around kids.”

Ignoring this last part Toby replies, “They wanted me to go and play with them but we don’t exactly trust you to be here alone.”

“I am a grown woman Tobias. You can go and play if you want to. I have a project to complete. Top Secret! I’ll be good. I promise.” Her promise was made deviantly and with her fingers crossed and held out in front of Toby’s face.

“A project already, huh? Care to share the details, after all I am family.”

“No! I said Top Secret! Didn’t you hear the capital letters in my inflection? It’s an enigma you’ll have to solve. Like me.” And with that she went and started breaking down the boxes. Toby took her first load to the storage area and on his way to get a second one Walter called, needing help on the mission. Walter asked Toby if he could leave his mother for a short time to go to a local office where they needed some of his behaviorist skills. He agreed and warned his mother to be good, then left her in the garage alone.

Jane finished with the boxes and looked around at the silence, then went on a little tour, looking through the entire garage and collecting materials for her project. She took 15 of Sylvester’s pencils, twine from Happy’s shelves, glue from Toby’s chemistry and medical supplies, markers and ribbons from her own supplies. When she first made it to where the doll house was, she froze in complete euphoria, wondering how she could be so lucky. After gathering the rest of the materials, she piled them around on the floor by the doll house, making herself invisible from the garage’s various openings. Jane set to work making dolls out of the pencils and arranging them in various tableaux in the doll house.

On finishing his errand for the team, Toby made his way back to the garage. He didn’t see or hear his mother, so he started to look for her, but Walter called again just then asking for computer support. While on the phone, Walter asked why Toby was playing music when he should be focused on the case. Toby hadn’t noticed it until Walter pointed it out, but he recognized it at once. Toby looked around from his spot at the monitors and found his mother sitting on the floor behind the doll house. Terror instantly rose through him. He knows how Happy hates people touching her things and messing with her doll house, but that was second only to the fright of seeing his mother creating something. He needed to finish with Walter, so he told Walter he couldn’t stop the music but that it wasn’t interfering with his work. “It’s a radio I have yet to learn which button to push to turn it off.”

“What?” Walter demanded.

“It’s my mother singing.” Toby admitted. Since she had sung to herself his whole life, he didn’t automatically hear it anymore, but could recognize it when it was pointed out to him.

After finishing with this particular crisis in the case, Toby started to approach his mother, who jumped up to hide her work when she noticed him.

“Don’t you come any closer. You can’t see this just yet! If’n you need some lovin’ you just let me know and I’ll come to you.” She adopted an awful Southern accent to sweeten up her scolding, but she really just wanted him to leave her alone so she could work.

“Cordelia, are you feeling alright?” Toby asked hesitantly.

The garage door opened right then with a special delivery from Brooklyn. Toby left his mother, who was smiling innocently up at him, to get the package; once he was gone she went back to her crafts. Toby took the package to his desk and stared in disbelief at the sheer volume of pills with his mother’s name on them. He started making a list of the doctors on the labels and calling them to get her diagnoses. While he was finishing up on the phone, yelling at several East Coast doctors and their nurses, Jane started arranging things in the doll house. Then she simply stated “it’s coming” and went on with her work.

Toby heard that his mother said something, and then the words registered. They reminded him of when he was young. His mother would let his father and him know that she was changing from high to low, and this was her saying that the low was on its way. He hung up with the doctor he was just yelling at and approached his mother gingerly and asked if she would like to go and lay down. She declined.

“I have to finish this. I’m almost done, then I’ll go to my pretty place for a while, I think.”

Toby took this to mean the elevator, which she had taken the entire night beautifying, he hadn't been able to get her to leave. He walked away from her, unsure if it was safe to do so, and at the same moment the rest of the team came in for a problem solving session. Once the problem was solved it was determined that Toby needed to go with team this time, but that Happy could stay behind to watch Jane. Unhappy about this, Happy asked Toby, “Do I need to know anything special about how to deal with her? Do I need anything other than your number on speed dial?”

Smiling down at her, Toby answered “Her mania is ending, so once she’s done with her project she should just go into the elevator and sleep.” Using air quotes he added, “her pretty place. She may try to find a drinky-poo. Try to keep her from the booze, but if she insists, I’d rather her drink then hurt you, or herself.”

The team left and Happy kept her distance from Toby’s mother, her future mother-in-law. Not long after the team was gone, Jane got up and danced across the floor, asked the room in general where the little girl’s room was and exited. Since she was going in the right direction, Happy left her to it.  
Happy took a deep breath and settled down at her computer. After ten minutes without any sound from the direction of the restrooms, she decided that she should go over to see if Jane was okay. Not having been told what to call her, Happy called out “Mrs. Curtis? Jane? Toby’s mom?” She didn’t get an answer so she pushed in the door and ran into Jane on her way out. Jane winced a bit, but stood up to her full height and said, “I guess it’s time that we had ourselves a little pow-wow.”

Happy’s shocked face was ignored by Jane who grabbed Happy by the hand and led her to the elevator which was completely transformed. There was a curtain of ribbons hanging over the door that opened onto a new-looking space with fabric covering every wall. There were cushions and blankets covering the floor, books stacked against the back wall, and what looked like a nest in the middle of the small room. Jane sat down in the center of the nest and patted the ground in front of her. Happy cringed at the girlyness of everything in the room and sat down slowly across from the woman who gave Toby life.

Jane started talking and Happy just listened.

“I’m sure Toby has told you of my mental state. He is fond of finding alternative ways to tell the world that I am” she pauses a little “crazy. That isn’t entirely accurate. Especially at moments like this, the Twilight Time, I call it. The mania is receding and the Depression hasn’t yet nestled in, but it is on its way, I can feel it seeping in around the corners of my mind.” Here she shakes her head, like she may be able to shake it out. “I haven’t always been like this, you know. I had a lucid childhood and teenage experience. I met Toby’s father and we had a normal wedding and the beginning of our life together was good. After I had Toby I had pretty bad postpartum depression (he doesn’t know this) and I self-medicated, which didn’t help. The first time my soon-to-be-ex-husband took me to get evaluated, the crackpot, discount shrink put me on high doses of Lithium which messed with the natural metals and chemicals in my brain, switching on an inherited genetic marker that I had successfully avoided until then. The first time I tried to stop taking the Lithium, the mania hit. My poor Sonny boy was five, already working through the top levels of the elementary school curriculum and we went on a bender through the education system that had him testing out of anything I could find to test him on. Pre-internet, the tests were a little harder to find than I’m sure they are today, but it gave him the rush that probably started his gambling addiction (also fed by his father’s gambling) and fueled my disease.

“That first episode lasted a week, which was the most fun Tobias and I have ever had together. When the depression returned, I could see it hurting him, since he thought he was to blame. I did find some medical journals and books for him to read that told that story of other women who had gone through mental disorders, so he would understand that it wasn’t his fault. Mistakenly he thought it was his responsibility to fix me. He finished high school at 12 and started pre-med classes at local colleges. He worked his way into Harvard and then tried to diagnose and medicate me. He’s always been too close to be able to see what’s really wrong, and he blames himself, like kids do. So the gambling was a retreat for him, which led him to be chased across the country by all of the people be was better than at cards. He did get into trouble a lot while he was growing up, but he was just looking for attention. Attention my drug and alcohol addled brain wouldn’t allow me to give him and that his father couldn’t give him. Toby reminds his father, more than I do, of how he ended up with Bertha, the first Mrs. Rochester, and that I prevented him from finding his Jane Eyre.”

As Jane talked, her speech became slower and quieter, the depression sinking in, Happy thought. When it seemed she had finished her story she slid down onto her side and fell asleep. Happy wasn’t sure what exactly had just happened, or how to feel about all of this information, so she just covered Jane with a blanket and started to leave. As she got to the door Jane jerked awake, she looked up and around. When she spotted Happy at the door she weakly said, “I think you should call me Millie. I can’t stand the thought of being called someone’s mother-in-law, but the acronym lends itself to Millie. Love him.” she looked deep into Happy’s eyes as she said her last words and then dropped her head and fell asleep again.

\--------------------  
The team returned again, the case now completed, wearily filing back into the garage to find Happy reading at her desk.

“Where’s my mom?” Toby asked her as he walked up to place a hand on her back.

“Sleeping in her, um, nest?” Happy replied, still unsure of what was actually going on with his mom. “She told me to call her Millie after she gave me your entire life story.” At this Happy gave Toby a little half smile, hoping things were getting back to some semblance of normal.

Toby rolled his eyes and went off to find his mother.

“Should she be in the elevator, Happy?” He called.

“That’s where I left her, and I haven’t heard anything since I came out here.”

Toby brought out a blood soaked blanket to show Happy what he found in the elevator. “Did you kill her?” he asked, a little facetiously. Shocked at the sight of the blood, the entire team returned to attention, waiting for instructions on what to do. Remembering the enigma comment his mother made earlier, Toby went over to the doll house and saw a sign his mother left for him.

“Dr. Tobias M. Curtis,  
Here is your promised enigma. Solve it quickly, or don’t.  
I’ll love you always and always be glad that you’ve found your own love to replace mine.  
Jane Cordelia Curtis (I’ll think of a different name if there’s time.)

“Oh, God” Toby exclaimed and he looked into the doll house to see what his mother left for him to solve. Inside he saw:  
· A doll and a bottle of pills in the dining room  
· A doll hanging from the rafters in the upstairs sitting room  
· A doll laying on the floor of the kitchen with the oven door open  
· A doll in the bathtub with a little toaster in the bathroom  
· A doll in the living room with a knife in its right side  
· A doll under a tarp next to the doll house by the motorcycle, by its tailpipe. The one Toby got for Happy to park there

As Toby noticed the many vignettes throughout the house he grew more and more terrified. “Guys, we need to look for these tableaux played out here in the garage, and in the loft. Walter, I’m so sorry that I brought her here.”

“Don’t think about that now, we need to find her” Paige shouted as she ran to the kitchen. She found nothing.

Walter ran up the stairs and searched his living quarters and lab. He found nothing.

Sylvester looked around the room they had all just been in, staying still as terror filed him and the rest of the team ran off. He couldn’t see Jane anywhere.

Cabe went into the storage area in the rear of the garage and found nothing.

Happy and Toby looked at each other and then down at the doll house. Toby fingered the tarp and suggested they look outside, together.

“I don’t know how she could have gotten outside without me hearing her, the bay door isn’t open, and every other outside door we have is very loud. How could she have gotten out, and me not hear her?” Happy wondered out loud.

“She has a lot of practice silently avoiding people. Those ballet shoes she wears aren’t just because she fancies being Ginger Rogers. She wears them for silent movement.” 

Happy and Toby make it outside and start circling the building. On three sides they find nothing. Once they get to the loading dock out back they see a bundle of rags in a heap by the ledge. A pool of blood is spreading out from under them. Toby goes into instant Doctor Mode while Happy has become a statue at the sight of the blood.

Toby looks up and sees that Happy hasn’t moved from where they were first able to see Jane, so he yells, “Don’t just stand there, call an ambulance!” He is frantically trying to find the source of the bleeding. He looks at all of his mother’s exposed skin, and doesn’t see anything. He cringes thinking that he is going to have to remove her dress when the rest of the team joins them, after hearing Toby’s yell for an ambulance. Toby looks at Paige for help, so she joins him in the search. They discover that Jane winces when they get close to her waist on the right side, so Paige rips open the dress and finds the wound.

“Déjà vu,” Paige says, reminded of when Cabe caught some shrapnel in the desert.

“Except she did this to herself” Toby says gravely. “She didn’t follow the puzzle.” He turns to yell at his mother, “You didn’t follow the puzzle, stabbed in the gut was supposed to be in the living room!” He’s putting pressure on the wound when he discovers the razor blade she used to make the wound is still in the wound, because it cuts him as he presses onto his mother’s side.

“Dammit, she booby trapped her suicide attempt!” he shouts as he pulls his hands away. He can’t tell now what is his blood and what blood has come from trying to save his mother and he is increasingly starting to freak out. He manages to gather some of Jane’s dress to put in her wound and uses some more of it to wrap his wound, but there is an increasing amount of blood while Jane’s movements (her breathing and wincing from the pain and the pressure Toby is placing on the wound) get fewer and farther between. Toby looks up at Happy, who is yelling at a 911 operator to get help faster when they finally hear an ambulance. Toby is about ready to pass out, which his mother has already done, when the EMTs finally arrive. They load his mother onto a gurney and then load him into the back so he can stay with her.

Once they are loaded in and on their way, Paige goes straight into business mode. “Guys, we have to go to the hospital; Cabe, you’re driving. Happy, Sylvester, Walter – Toby is going to need us! Let’s go!”

Most of the team moves off toward Cabe’s SUV, but Sylvester is left staring at the pool of blood that stains the cement. Paige notices and has to forcibly move him to the car as he begins to mutter lines from Lady Macbeth’s Act V experience with spots and blood.

\----------------------  
Jane has surgery which closes her self-inflicted gash and replenishes her blood. From the hall, Toby watches her sleep through the windows of her hospital room. He feels guilty about having her restrained, but knows it’s the only way to keep her alive.

Happy enters, but keeps her distance. She still feels the need to help him, though so she starts with, “This isn’t your fault.”

“I know.”

“She told me about you. She really loves you.”

“Enough to bleed out on my back porch. Ok, Walter’s back porch, but I work there. In all the years that I tried to help her I could never understand her. After Harvard I learned that I wouldn’t ever get an answer to what is really going on with her, but now more than ever that’s all I want.” Toby finally looks over at Happy and asks, “Why would she move all of her belongings across the country and stage an elaborate suicide for me to solve, after just seeing our wedding announcement?” He gets an idea, which he starts to explain as he leans in to the wall for support, “Oh. She thinks you’ll be what she could never be for me. Now that I have you I don’t have any use for her. Apparently I only need the love of one woman in my life. When I moved to California I thought I was leaving all of this behind. How has she gotten back in so easily? I thought I’d compartmentalized her, and my life back then, so that none of it could affect me like this anymore. I’m wrecked. I am literally shredded” he says as he holds up his bandaged hand. 

Happy sees that he needs something from her, but doesn’t know what that could be, so she looks from him to his mother. “She told me about you, but she doesn’t know about me. How I’ve never known a mother. I don’t want that for you.”

Toby has heard what he needs, that Happy loves him. He moves toward her and notices her eyes getting bigger. He looks into his mother’s hospital room and sees that Jane is waking up.

“I’ll be right here,” Happy says, to encourage him to go into his mom, but also to let him know that she is not ready to deal with Millie again, not yet anyway.

Jane sees Toby and looks away, disappointed and embarrassed. “I always knew you were too good at puzzles.” Her lilting singsong tone is gone. She speaks in a monotone and refuses to look at Toby. “I guess I’ll be spending the rest of my life in a hospital. How long that is, we’ll have to see. At least your father never made me suffer this indignity.”

Toby’s breath catches in his chest. He didn’t anticipate the hatred coming at him like this. When he can speak again he says. “I’ll be in charge of your care, mother. This hospital is giving me privileges so I can make sure you get the best care. I also have to see a few other patients every week, but I should be putting my education to use, don’t you think?” His attempt at humor falls flat. He tries to touch her hand, but she pulls away as far as the restraints will let her. Then she feels the bracelet he always wears against her skin; she looks at it and gives him the stare she gave Happy when she first looked at her.

“That is mine. You stole it Give it back!” She then starts screaming and having what most people would believe is a pretty normal mental hospital fit. Toby knows there is nothing else he can do for her until she forgives him for saving her life. 

“Good-bye Mother. I will come back when you can listen. I’ll get you on the right meds so that it will hopefully be soon.” He looks at her longingly and then joins Happy in the hallway. They look at her through the glass as she continues to scream and thrash in her bed, and then Toby turns and leads Happy away.


End file.
